Analyzing the New ‘Paragon’ Gameplay Trailer

Epic Games just released a brand new gameplay trailer for their upcoming MOBA Paragon, revealing several new heroes and abilities. There’s a lot of learn in the latest trailer, which you can check out above, so let’s take a deeper look into what Paragon has to offer.

Gadget

What appears to be a mechanic joins the battlefield with Gadget, the first hero reveal, a female human sporting a rusty backpack equipped with what looks to be an extra arm. Her small figure and the robot suit she wears is very reminiscent of Gazlowe from Heroes of the Storm. Gazlowe also wears a contraption with mechanical arms and uses his technical acumen to build turrets and blast enemies with bombs and lasers.

While we can’t see the rest of Gadget’s kit, we do know she can launch a drone of sorts using her ability Seek & Destroy. The drone — which I hope has a name — travels a short distance away and hovers above the ground, blasting anything within its radius. While Seek & Destroy doesn’t seem like it has a huge area of effect, it does look like a great way to farm minions from a distance or rain destruction over a prolonged team fight.

Feng Mao

Equipped with a crazy looking polearm — some kind of bardiche — Feng Mao also joins the heroes of Paragon. His weapons looks to give Feng Mao an extra bit of reach and the ability to attack enemies with a swinging area of effect attack, similar to League of Legends‘Xin Zhao. He might not be the heartiest hero on the battlefield, but Feng Mao looks like he can push a lane with the best of them.

We actually see two of Feng Mao’s abilities in this reveal. The first, Earth Shatter, causes Mao to leap into the air before slamming down and causing blade-like protrusions to burst from the ground in a straight line. MOBA fans will likely find similarities here with Earth Shaker from Defense of the Ancients 2, whose Fissure ability similarly slams down and creates a ridge of stone. Fung Mao’s ability lacks the the range of Earth Shaker’s ability, but it does seem powerfully disruptive.

Perhaps most impressively, Feng Mao’s Reaping Dash looks like a short range teleport, moving him out of harm’s way. On-cast teleportation is a huge boon in MOBAs, which is why items and abilities like Blink Dagger and Flash are so popular in Dota 2 and League of Legends. Blink, Anti-mage‘s ability from Dota 2, has the most similarities to Reaping Dash, but unlike the Dota counterpart, Feng Mao unleashes an attack upon his arrival. In the right hands, I suspect Feng Mao will be a master of getting in and out of combat at a moment’s notice.

Rampage

The latest brute to join the bunch, Rampage is a huge, hulking fish-like beast with webbed feet and hands. The shackles on his left arm show he’s broken out of confinement, unsurprising given his enormous size. While he looks a bit like an aquatic version of Malphite from League of Legends, his Boulder Throw ability, seen below, looks a lot more like Gnar’s very similar Boulder Toss. The ability lobs an enormous stone at distant enemies, exploding to dish out area of effect damage.

While we aren’t given a name for his second ability, we can see Rampage leaping from his perch to slam down at Feng Mao. With Paragon‘s verticality, a move like this is a powerful way to literally leap into battle. Like Malphite’s Unstoppable Force ultimate, Rampage looks to punish any opponents foolish enough to stand in one place.

Kallari

Last but not least, the assassin Kallari joins the fray. One thing is immediately clear: Kallari is a deadly stealth character. Every MOBA has them, from HotS’ Zeratul to Smite‘s Loki. Stealth characters have the pesky habit of going invisible and slaughtering your back line of squishy heroes. With an apparent leap attack and Death Sentence, a brutal ability seen below that sends him dashing through an opponent with his twin blades, Kallari looks like the first Paragon character everyone will love to hate. I, for one, can’t wait to skulk around the battlefield in search of those sweet, sweet ganks.

That’s it for the new heroes in Paragon‘s gameplay trailer. If there’s one more thing we can take from this video, it is a lesson all MOBA fans should know by now: Don’t overextend when pushing your lane!